


Radio games

by SugdenLovesDingle



Series: Flufftober [25]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Family Fluff, M/M, teenage seb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27190759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugdenLovesDingle/pseuds/SugdenLovesDingle
Summary: Flufftober day 25: CompromiseSeb enters a competition on the radio
Relationships: Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden
Series: Flufftober [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947490
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52





	Radio games

**Author's Note:**

> another it's there if you squint take on the day's prompt

“Dad, can I go to Isaac’s now? I’ll do my homework tonight.”

Aaron gave his son an incredulous look.

“Are you for real? Did you hear nothing that was said in that meeting just now?”

“Of course I did, that’s why I said I’d do my homework tonight.” Seb reasoned.

Aaron shook his head and unlocked the portacabin.

“Short answer: no. Long answer: hell no.”

Seb rolled his eyes.

“I promise I’ll do it tonight. I’ll even come downstairs to do it.”

“And watch tv with us all night? I don’t think so.” Aaron cleared his desk and pulled out his chair. “Sit.”

Seb sighed but did as he was told.

“You’re going to sit here where I can keep an eye on you, and do your homework. And when you’re done, we’ll go over it together.”

They’d just come back from a meeting with Seb’s teacher, who was worried there might be problems at home. He’d told Aaron Seb had been distracted a lot lately and his grades were dropping to a point where he might have to repeat the year if they didn’t improve.

It had all come as a shock to Aaron, who wished Robert had been by his side to insist they weren’t bad parents for not noticing, but of course he had to be down in London until the end of the week for work, leaving Aaron to deal with all three of their kids on his own.

Thankfully the twins were hanging out with Eve, so that was one (or two) less thing to worry about.

“We can get you a tutor if you don’t understand the material.” Aaron suggested as he sat down at Robert’s desk. “There’s no shame in asking for help, you know.”

“I know.” Seb told him. “But I don’t need help.”

“Your grades say you do, mate.”

Seb rolled his eyes again and reluctantly started taking his books out of his bag.

“I’m just bored with it. It’s all pointless anyway. When am I ever going to use any of this?” he dropped his maths book on the desk. “Do you use it?”

“Me? No, not really. But lots of other people do.”

“Like who?”

“Like your auntie Vic. When she has to adjust recipes and she has to calculate how much more or less of the ingredients she needs.” Aaron told him. “Or Vanessa and Jamie when they need to figure out how much of a certain medicine an animal needs.”

“But I’m not going to be a chef or a vet, so why do I need it?”

“Because the school says so. Because the government says so. Because you’ll have to repeat the year if you don’t. And then you won’t be in the same class as your mates anymore, is that what you want?”

“No…”

“Then get to it.” Aaron tapped Seb’s maths book. “The sooner you get started on it, the sooner you’ll be done and you can go see your mates.” He got up. “Do you want a cup of tea?”

“Sure.” Seb sighed, flicking through his book to find the right page.

“With the fancy chocolate biscuits your dad thinks I don’t know about?” Aaron grinned, opening the bottom drawer of Robert’s desk and pulling out a packet of biscuits.

Seb grinned back.

“Can I have two?”

“Yeah, why not. He’ll just think he ate them all and buy new ones.” Aaron laughed and went to make their tea.

His dad seemed to be in a good mood so Seb decided to push his luck.

“Dad?”

“Hmm?”

“Can I turn the radio on?” he asked. “Just so it’ll be less boring while I work. And there’s a competition on. Maybe I’ll win.”

“Ok, fine. But you actually do your homework, yeah? Don’t just listen to the radio. Because if your grades don’t improve, I don’t care what you win tickets for, Isaac will have to go alone.”

“I’ll do the work.” Seb promised and got up to turn the radio on and find the right station.

Aaron sat with him for a bit while they drank their tea. By the time he’d finished his, he was satisfied Seb was indeed doing his homework, and put his hi-vis vest and gloves on to get to work himself.

“I’ll be right outside, give me a shout if you need anything.” He told Seb. “And just ignore that phone if it rings, it’s connected to the answering machine, they can just leave a message.”

“Ok, dad.” Seb said and watched Aaron leave the portacabin. He waited a little while longer until he heard banging coming from outside and then figured it was safe to turn the radio up.

“Welcome back everyone, you’re listening to Dales FM, I’m Mason.”

“And I’m Alexis. And we’ve got some good stuff coming up for you as we discuss this week’s new releases and, drumroll please, your chance to win a three day, all expenses paid, trip to a European capital of your choice!”

“Will it be a weekend in Paris, the city of love?”

“Or are you and your partner or friend going to treat yourselves to the real Italian pizza in Rome?”

“Or chocolate tasting in Brussels.”

“Or checking out the museums in Amsterdam.

“It’s all up to you. You choose the city, we’ll take care of the rest.”

“If you want to be in with a chance to win, just keep listening.”

Another song started and Seb let himself breathe for a moment. He was determined to win this trip. He’d been trying all week but to no avail.

It was another half an hour before the boarding call sounded and Seb grabbed his phone to hit send on the text he’d typed up earlier.

“Come on, come on, come on.” He hissed at his phone and cursed the bad signal in his dad’s office. There was a plop and a tick and the message was sent.

Some song was playing but Seb had absolutely no idea what it was. He was a nervous wreck and nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone rang a little while later.

“Hello?”

“Hi this is Tia from Dales FM, I’m producer for Mason and Alexis. I saw your text for the competition and we all really liked it.”

“Oh… right… thanks…”

“Would you like to explain it live on air in a few minutes?”

Seb glanced out the window to see Aaron was still working and wasn’t paying attention to him.

“Uh yeah ok.”

“Great. Just stay on the line, I’ll patch you through in a bit and you can have a chat with the DJs.”

Seb nodded but then realised the person on the other end couldn’t see him and felt like an idiot.

“Ok.”

“Oh and remember to turn your radio off or we’ll get an echo on the line. You can listen to the show via the phone.”

“Oh right. I’ll turn it off now.”

“Great. Thanks. We’ll be with you in a few minutes.” She said and after a click, all Seb could hear was the music that was on air at that moment.

The song ended and Seb’s nerves spiked.

“And welcome back again.” Mason spoke. “If you’ve been paying attention you might have heard the boarding call right before these songs, your signal to start texting the studio to be in with a chance to win the all expenses paid trip for two!”

“The lines are now closed.” Alexis announced. “You’ll have another chance to win during Ollie’s show later on.” She told the audience. “We got loads and loads of texts, our inbox has exploded, but we managed to pick a winner.”

“That’s right. So let’s see who is on the line now. Hi this is Mason and Alexis, what’s your name?”

“I’m Seb. Sebastian. Seb.”

“Hi Seb, where are you from?”

“Uh Emmerdale. It’s uh… not far from Leeds.”

“Oh I know Emmerdale.” Mason commented. “My mum is from there originally. I still have some relatives up there too.”

“Your family is huge, you have relatives all over the place.” Alexis shot back. “No matter where our callers are from, you’ll have relatives living there. But we’re getting distracted. It’s not Mason’s family we should be talking about, it’s yours isn’t it Seb?”

“Uh yeah…”

“Ok let me explain to the listeners what’s going on. Seb just sent us a text for the competition. But if you win, you’re not going to keep it to yourself are you?”

“Uh no… I uh wanted to give it to my dads. As an anniversary present.”

“That’s so sweet. I hope my future kids turn out like you.” Mason told Seb. “So why do you want to give this trip to your parents?”

“Well… things haven’t always been easy for them, and somehow things always happen around their anniversary and they end up having to cancel their trip. Last year my gran got really sick, the year before my aunt’s house flooded, the year before that my dad broke his foot… and they didn’t even book anything this year because things were… kind of… mad… at home.” Seb explained. “I uh… got into some trouble at school and they’re worried I’ll have to repeat the year... because my grades are kind of… bad… right now…”

“So you want to give them a holiday so they’ll get off your case? Is that it?” Mason joked.

“No, I just want to do something nice for them. They deserve a few days away without having to worry about me or my sisters.”

“That’s sweet.” Alexis said. “Your text said you wanted the trip to be to Barcelona. You do know that’s not a capital, right?”

“Yeah, I know. But they’ve planned to go there so many times, even before I was born, and things just keep getting in the way. They’ve never been and I just thought... it would be nice for them to go now.”

“I think we can make an exception just this once.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, we’re in a good mood today. Are your parents around? So we can tell them the good news.”

“Uh yeah one of them is… the other is in London for work right now.”

“Mase, what do you think? Are we calling London?”

“We’re calling London. But put the dad on that’s actually around now first.” Mason told Seb. “What’s his name?”

“It’s Aaron. Sugden-Dingle. One second, I’ll go put him on.” Seb said and walked outside. “Dad?”

Aaron looked up from his work.

“Are you done with your homework already?”

“Almost. But there’s a phone call for you.”

“I told you to just ignore it, the machine will deal with it.”

“It’s not on your work phone, it’s on mine.”

Aaron frowned.

“Who would call you when they need to talk to me? Wait, is it your dad? Did he ring me first?” he grabbed his phone from his back pocket.

“No, it’s uh, it’s the radio. I won something.”

“Oh? What did you win? If it’s concert tickets, you know what I said.”

“That’s not it.” Seb said and held out his phone to Aaron.

“Hello?”

“Hi mister Sugden-Dingle, you’re on the air with Mason and Alexis from Dales FM, can we call you Aaron?”

“Sure.”

“Well Aaron, we have this competition this week where you can win a three day trip to a European capital… and Seb just won!”

“He won? He’s only 15. How can he win a trip?”

“It’s a trip for two and anyone under 18 has to ask permission from a parent or guardian.”

“Oh, right, and that’s what you need me for?”

“Not exactly. Seb won but has decided he wants his parents to go on a well earned trip. He’s giving it to you.”

“Are you joking?” Aaron asked, staring at his son as he put the phone on speaker.

“No, we’re not joking. Seb has just won you an all expenses paid trip to a European capital of your choice!”

“This is real? This is really real? Not some kind of prank?”

“No, I promise you, it’s all real.”

“You and dad are going to Barcelona. Because you always wanted to go but it never worked out.” Seb told Aaron. “And you deserve a nice trip without having to worry about everything.”

“Barcelona… a trip to Barcelona. You’re crazy, come here.” Aaron pulled his son into a hug and kissed the top of Seb’s head. “You’re crazy. Absolutely crazy. But I love you, kiddo.”

“Seb told us his other parent is in London, so we thought we’d call London live on air.”

With a little radio magic they managed to get Robert on the phone while also keeping the line with Aaron and Seb open.

“Robert Sugden-Dingle.”

“Rob! It’s me.” Aaron said when he answered.

“And me.” Seb added.

“Hey you two. What’s going on? The number didn’t show up.”

“That’s because we’re involved too.” Alexis interrupted. “This is Mason and Alexis from Dales FM, you’re on the air right now.”

“What? What’s going on?”

“Do you want to explain, Seb?”

“I won a trip for you and dad!”

“You what?”

“We have a competition to win an all-expenses paid trip to a European capital of your choice, and Seb won and decided to give it to you and your partner.”

“He won us a trip to Barcelona, Rob. We’re going to Barca. Finally.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really!” Seb answered. “I know I haven’t made things easy for you lately… and with things always getting in the way on your anniversary, I wanted to give you this trip so you can finally go.”

“I… I… I wish I was there right now so I could give you a hug.”

“Already taken care of.” Aaron told him, smiling at their son, and pulling him close once again.

“So, Robert and Aaron, looks like you’re going to Barcelona. How are you feeling?”

“Kind of overwhelmed if I’m honest.” Robert replied, laughingly.

“Yeah me too.” Aaron agreed. “But also very happy. Because we have the best kid in the world.”


End file.
